The Perception of Made in Italy in China: Discourse Patterns in Selected Chinese News Coverage

This dissertation investigates the perception of Made in Italy as portrayed in Chinese media, based on a small-scale corpus study focusing on Chinese journalistic discourse. The primary aim is to identify the most prevalent semantic and discursive patterns in the representation of Italian products, with particular attention to the symbolic, cultural, and aesthetic values associated with the Made in Italy label. The first part of the dissertation provides a theoretical analysis of Made in Italy, outlining its historical development, legal protections, and regulatory framework. Following a description of the methodological approach and the keywords used to extract relevant texts from both general-interest and specialized Chinese sources, the second part presents and discusses the data. The analysis focuses on the distribution of lexical items related to quality, creativity, tradition, excellence, luxury, and innovation.